More than Meets the Eye
by Felicity101
Summary: Adrian Shephard is thrust into a brave new world to assist Gordon Freeman's mission to bring the Combine empire to its knees. When the two men set aside their differences and form an uneasy alliance, they realize that there is so much more to this mission and each other than meets the eye...


**_A/N: An experiment to see how the Half-Life universe would be altered by the early return of Adrian Shepard. Yes, I am perfectly aware that I have deleted it 5 times before and that this is the 6th time I uploaded it. For one, I realized that I had too many OCs at one time, and their addition to the story made it unnecessarily complicated and distracted from the main story line. It should be much easier to follow now. R&R!_**

**_P.S: The quote will make more sense as you go along with the series.  
P.P.S: You'll also notice that I changed this first chapter quite a bit. I had completely forgotten that G-Man put Adrian on an Osprey, not in regular stasis. Oops.  
P.P.P.S: I keep on putting "statis" instead of "stasis." _**

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_**"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."  
**_~Antoine de Saint-Exupery_  
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**Prologue: In The Shadows**

_Subject: Shephard, Adrian Robin_

_Status: Reactivated_

_Assignment: Classified_

Adrian had never liked Ospreys. They always had one of the most nausea inducing flights that he had ever experienced in his life, almost as bad as helicopters. To add to it, they were always packed as full as physically possible, making for an extremely claustrophobic experience. It was hard to block out the idiocy of his comrades when he was sanwiched in between two obnoxious men that were almost as big as he was, yelling right next to his ears because the others wouldn't be able to hear their sexist and homophobic commentary over the Osprey's engines otherwise.

All of those things were nonexistent here. At first, Adrian had been thankful for the smooth ride and and privacy of this little personal hell, but after awhile, that just wasn't enough to keep his situation bearable. Even for somebody who preferred their own company, the complete and total isolation from all interaction with another living being, human or otherwise, was starting to wear down Shephard's sanity. Humans were social creatures, after all. It didn't help that there was absolutely nothing to keep him occupied. He was relatively easy to amuse, but not even Adrian could find something to do in here other than sleep and wish that he had never had to go to Black Mesa to begin with, or at least hadn't ended up here.

Adrian wasn't so sure what or where "here" was. The Osprey was the only thing in his environment that was even remotely familiar to him. When he was first put here, there were what appeared to be stars right outside of the Osprey, distorted into blurs of light by the motion of the tiltrotor aircraft. He had attempted to reach out of the aircraft to see if he had any prospects of escaping. He was completely taken aback when some sort of invisible boundary made itself very evident. The moment his hand made contact with it, it became slightly more evident to his eyes, the material rippling under his touch like water. A completely foreign feeling had passed through his body on contact , leaving him feeling surprisingly tired afterwards. He had fallen asleep soon after due to his sudden weariness, but when he had awakened, the "stars" had been replaced by some sort of 3D "grid", each of then "lines" glowing radioactive green.

The scenery outside of the Osprey seemed to change each time he woke up from a nap, each one unique. Usually this would give Adrian something to look at as time passed, but the last time he had woken up, all that was outside was jet black. Adrian had actually spent a couple hours (at least it seemed like a couple hours. The concept of time didn't seem to exist in this place) looking out of the windows and doorway trying to find something in the darkness. Needless to say, it was to no avail.

That had been what seemed like several hours ago. Since then, he had been trying to get to sleep again. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. He was finally starting to doze off when bright green light filled the room, shining bright enough to be seen through Adrian's closed eyes. He sat up quickly, pushing off the blanket that had mysteriously appeared on top of him when he had woken up one "morning". As he expected, a glowing green portal was in the doorway of the Ospery, a dark silhouette of a man blocking out some of the light. As the portal sparked out of existence, the man's features became discernible.

The marine's face curved into a scowl. The man standing in front of him was instantly recognizable. His pale, weathered face, his cold, icy blue eyes that were disturbingly similar to Adrian's in regards to color, his crisp blue business suit, the way he stood, his unnaturally stiff movements... he was unmistakable. Adrian hadn't expected anything less, even though he had been hoping for somebody, anybody else. This bastard was the reason he was here at all. If it weren't for him, Adrian would be far from Black Mesa, heading back to Santiago military base, stuffed in between Jack and Thompson, joking about how big of a pussy the person that decided to pull out was and bragging about every headshot they got on the aliens.

Apparently, that had been too much to ask for.

Adrian stood up as the G-man stepped closer, smiling in greeting. Adrian didn't return the gesture as he glared at him. The G-man's expression darkened at the marine's reaction.

"Why the ...harsh feelings, Corporal Shephard?" he inquired in a raspy voice, his speech pattern strange and foreign.

"You know exactly why."

The G-man once again smirked. "Enlighten me."

"You're the son of a bitch that put me in this prison in the first place," Adrian growled, trying to step towards him, only to be held back by some unseen force. "You not only forced me to fight through the hellhole of Black Mesa, but you also put thousands of lives at risk when you reactivated the nuclear warhead! If you cared so much about my survival, why the hell would you put my life at risk? "

"Oh, Shephard, " the G-man sighed, "Why do you make such... accusations? All of my... actions were made with your survival in mind, no matter how they may have... appeared. All will be explained and understood in due... time."

Adrian was about to make a snide remark when G-Man continued. "Meanwhile, your... services are required once again." He held up a hand, silently signaling for Shephard to hold back the comments that he had. "I am fully... aware of the fact that when we were first... introduced, you weren't the most... vital project of mine. However, the circumstances have changed since the last time we spoke. There are... urgent matters to be attended to. You are not the sole... 'employee' of mine. He is gifted with a similar... skill set as your own. Even though he is capable of holding his own, he does have some... liabilities. Where his weaknesses lie... is where you come in, Shephard. You will be assisting in his... objectives, which I assure you,"he added with a grim tone of voice, "are much different than back at Black Mesa."

The man started walking away. He stopped abruptly, and he turned to face the marine once more before disappearing.

"All that there is left to say is. ..not everything is as it seems."

_Subject: Shephard, Adrian Robin_

_Status: Employed_

_Assignment: Classified_

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A/N: I'm sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes in the chapter. I'm writing this chapter on my dad's Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, so I'm typing this text style, which I'm not used to. It's also a pain in the ass to edit text after you type it on here.


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